One of the deadly issues in the churches of Asia Minor that is addressed by the Revelation is the issue of complacency. The cause of this is the absence of any problem. There is no reason to be anxious. There is nothing to worry about. There is no struggle for identity, no difficulty in maintaining elite status in the society, no betrayals, and no problems from within or without. Everything seems to be going well. Everyone is healthy and wealthy. No hardships and no misery and no mystery. Everything seems to be clear and will continue to eternity. But out of nowhere, these congregations are the ones to receive the harshest criticism. In the eyes of the Lord of all creation, they are dead, naked, and blind.
Sardis was one of the cities of Asia Minor where Christianity was tolerated regardless of innumerable pagan Greco-Roman religious practices with which it was filled. Both Jewish and Christian communities did not face any kind of severe threats from the State or from the religio-cultural plurality. The city was also devoted to the Roman Emperors, particularly Tiberius, and honoured them with monuments. It was also rich in its economy. Moreover, it was one of the major centres for the slave trade in the Roman Empire. In such favourable conditions, the church at Sardis lived peacefully, enjoying the associations with the surrounding people. Therefore, “the Christian community there seems to have experienced no persecution— and no spiritual life.”[i]
Laodicea was a well-to-do city in the Roman Empire. It was located in the Lycus valley and was a centre for several financial operations. The city was so developed that even when it was destroyed by an earthquake in AD 61/62, it used its own resources to recover, without depending on any outside help. It was known for its textiles, specifically the local black wool.[ii] The city did not have a proper water supply that it received its hydro-facilities through pipelines and was vulnerable to enemies and bad weather.[iii] The Christian community in Laodicea had been previously addressed by Paul (Col. 4:16). However, the church in Laodicea, by the time Revelation was written, seems to have been facing no external threats nor internal struggles because of its richness in wealth and privileges. In His message to the Laodicean church, Jesus harshly criticizes the congregation without mention of any positive things that would be appreciated. “In their satisfaction with wealth, the Laodiceans are unwittingly collaborating with earth’s destroyers. The one who addresses them calls for change and a renewed commitment to creation’s rightful sovereign.”[iv]
The environment in the churches at Sardis and Laodicea was calm, fixed and closed. There is no misery to be addressed, there are no cries to be answered and there is nothing to care about. People are so satisfied that they do not notice anything happening around them. But the address to them reverses the scene. They are so indifferent that they are unaware of the absence of the Lord among them. They are not even aware their own existence is lifeless, useless, void and wasteful, at least before the Lord of life whose name they bear.
Revelation calls the church at Sardis dead. Their garments are filthy. It is not evident what kind of impurity John was trying to address. Filthy garments and lifelessness can be understood as a state of iniquity (cf. Zech. 3:3) and fleshly life (cf. Rom. 6:13; Eph. 2:1-5). However, it is clear that their works are imperfect. Something essential is missing out. Perhaps there is no life in their routine. Since name and clothes signify identity, it might be referring to a life that appears to be godly but is not. Or perhaps they are satisfied with their life, faith and works. They might be confident in their present existence and feel as if everything is alright with them.[v] The church thought that it is alive and active. The functioning of the church might have been smooth and vibrant. But in the eyes of the Lord, it is dead, spiritually dead. It is on the shrink of losing the participation in the transforming life of God in the New Jerusalem that is offered to those whose names are found in the book of life (3:5 cf. 21:27). Such self-righteousness is dangerous. Thinking that just holding firm to the traditions can make them righteous, is one of the Pharisaic attitudes that was criticized by Jesus Christ. It might seem beautiful but it is lifeless. Unless everyone shares in the life of Christ and the Spirit is active, the Church is lifeless.
Most of the churches today, in India and around the world, measure their life in terms of vibrancy during the time of worship and activeness in witnessing. However, even when these things are apparent, the Lord may criticize us for being dead in His sight. The liveliness in the church is not defined by the number of spiritual gifts we exercise but it is by deeds that reflect the righteousness of God. Our churches have to understand whether they are truly alive in the sight of God or not. The spiritual activeness is not supposed to be measured in terms of spiritual gifts alone but also in the terms of spiritual fruit (Gal. 5:22) that reflects the perfect nature of God. The church has to wake up, wake up from the spiritual sleep of ignorance.
The church at Laodicea also faces similar reproach. Jesus affirms that He knows their deeds that are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold. This reproof can be well understood in the geographical and social setting of the city of Laodicea. Hierapolis and Colossae were the sister cities of Laodicea in Lycus valley. Hierapolis had the hot water springs that are used for medicinal purposes and for bathing whereas Colossae had the cold and pure water that is healthy to drink. Since Laodicea lacked water facilities, it received the water from the hot water springs, six miles south of the city, through the rock pipelines. By the time the water reached the city, it would become lukewarm and the locals would always complain of this issue. Though the water could be heated, naturally, it was undrinkable.[vi] It was neither useful for medicinal purposes or for drinking or for bathing.
Such was the spiritual state of the church at Laodicea. Generally, it could be assumed that Jesus was calling the believers to a state of hotness rather than coldness. But, by the context, it is not so, rather Jesus was expecting them either to be hot or to be cold, otherwise, He would have asked them to become hot. Being lukewarm is a state of uselessness. Therefore, Jesus was not calling them for a spiritual temperature rather was revealing their spiritual bareness and utter inadequacy. The contrast here is between the hot water springs of Hierapolis and the cold and pure water of Colossae. Just as the water that is lukewarm and useless, the believers were neither providing refreshment to the weary souls, as the cold water does nor do they serve for the healing of the sick. Jesus expects the believers to rethink their state and repent, which, otherwise, could cause consequences of being rejected by the Lord. “The self-satisfied complacency and half-hearted commitment of this congregation are enough to make Christ sick!”[vii]
These churches are so self-satisfied that they do not notice how poor and naked they are before their Lord. They are stuck in a culture that lacks passion. In their eyes, everything is alright and nothing needs to be fixed. They live in a closed universe where there is no need for a revolution nor a change. They are well-positioned in their economic affluence and are too far from any pain. They are so distant from the cries of the suffering ones. They find themselves in a position where they can easily access God at any time. They do not notice His absence, banishment or grief. In other words, so strongly do they believe that God is so imminent that the actual absence of God is beyond their imagination. If anyone imagines so, it’s just a psychological issue, not a threatening visual. This is the consciousness that dominates the church.
Such consciousness prevails in our churches as well. We too are living in such a closed and fixed universe where we are so satisfied in our well-being that we do not even know who is in pain. A majority of Christians today are behind the message of material prosperity. They believe that the Christian faith is all about health and wealth. No suffering and no loss. It is a belief that God materially blesses everyone who has faith in him. An extreme of this is a belief that the pain and suffering in an individual’s life is a result of a lack of faith. “Affluence has made us ‘lukewarm,’ for we have become self-satisfied and interpret our trappings of ‘success’ (big churches, beautiful buildings, huge budgets) as God’s blessings.”[viii] We are obsessed with such a religion of optimism – health and wealth – that believes “God has no business other than to maintain our standard of living, ensuring his place in his palace…. It imagines that we can live outside history as self-made men and women.”[ix] Self-satisfaction and self-righteousness are so deadly that they make the Church blind to notice how naked, poor, and ugly it is in the eyes of the Lord, and unaware of its need for justification.
The Laodicean believers thought that they are wealthy and needed nothing. Probably, they might have understood their richness as the material blessing of God. They were self-satisfied with their material prosperity. However, Jesus reveals their ‘poverty, nakedness, and blindness’. They thought that they were secure because of their economic prosperity but Jesus turns the feeling of security into insecurity by portraying them as arrogant. He exposes it as a state of pride that leads to destructive fall (Prov. 16:18). Those who trust in their wealth are shown as vulnerable (Ps. 52:7; 62:10; Hos. 12:8). Similarly, Babylon (Rome) also thought that she needed nothing because she thought of herself as a queen (18:7) yet the destruction comes suddenly.[x] Jesus exposes the reality of the state of the church at Laodicea. Such pride always leads to irrecoverable destruction.
The Lord of the Church stands outside the doors of the self-satisfied communities (3:20). It is not an image of Jesus the Gentleman knocking the doors of an individual’s heart, waiting for his/her reception. It is a counter-reality against the consciousness of the church. Worship gatherings are constant but the Lord is outside. Eucharist is served but without the Lord of the meal. The churches may have enthusiastic worship services, powerful sermons, and fervent prayers even when Jesus is outside the doors. It seems everything has become ritualistic, without life and without any zeal. It seems no one has noticed that their Master is not with them. No one expected Him to be outside their celebrations and their banquets. It is a prophetic vision that is subversive to the dominant imagination. It is a visual that no one dares to see. Everything inside was going as if no one is missed out and they are accountable to no one.
The self-satisfied churches are no representatives of Christ. Self-satisfaction is marked with indifference towards the fellow brothers and sisters who are suffering. Such an attitude leads to uncompassionate nature where the pain of neighbours isn’t felt. All it needs is secured power and position. They go on as if everyone around them is all right and everything is okay with them. There is nothing to worry about and nothing to fix. Revelation shakes the foundations of such routine faith which is lifeless and thus useless. They are exposed as blind and naked despite their prosperity because they are nothing more than useless lukewarm water.
It seems, perhaps, Christ is unsettling the proud Christians so that they are brought down to become active representatives of His life in the world. He is offering the eye-balm so that we can see what is happening around us and be responsive to it. It might be a call to be compassionate and generous instead of being arrogant, heartless, and uncompassionate. It is a call to live as a part of history and to notice the reality, coming out of our comfort zones where we have nothing to care about. It is a time to let Christ come into our space and share His fellowship with us so that we can be transformed by His life and love.
One of Jesus’ parables, the parable of the Rich man and Lazarus, can be referred to here. The rich man ceaselessly feasted every day but so numb to notice the suffering Lazarus at his doorstep. As Brueggemann suggests, “the rich man who is numbed by his possessions and social status has no future; there is nothing but an end for him.”[xi] Complacent churches must understand that they stand before the Lord of history and the God of endings. Unless they repent, they stand alongside the arrogant Beast that will be soon brought down by the One who is the end of all things. The prophetic message of Revelation penetrates through the numbness of the self-satisfied ones and calls them to receive the new life. They must embrace the pathos of the suffering ones so that they can celebrate life.
[i] Keener, IVP BBC: NT, 735. [ii] Trebilco, “The Province and Cities of Asia,” in The World of the New Testament, 511. [iii] Osborne, BECNT: Revelation, 202. [iv] Koester, AYB: Revelation, 343. [v] Wielenga, Revelation to John, 26. [vi] Keener, IVP BBC: NT, 737. [vii] Reddish, SHBC: Revelation, 81. [viii] Osborne, BECNT: Revelation, 215. [ix] Brueggemann, the Prophetic Imagination, 50. [x] Koester, AYB: Revelation, 346. [xi] Brueggemann, the Prophetic Imagination, 89.
Comments